Christmas Comics Cavalcade: Season’s Beatings In ‘Power Man & Iron Fist Sweet Christmas Annual’
by Tony Thornley
Christmas time is getting close, and we’re only a few days away. If you’re a parent, you can relate to needing to find the best toy just in time. Well, you’re not the only one, and sometimes you need to be a Kung Fu master, a giant invulnerable black man and a spider-powered PI to get through it. And that’s exactly what 2016’s Power Man & Iron Fist Sweet Christmas Annual shows.
David Walker, Scott Hepburn, Matt Milla, and Clayton Cowles chronicle Luke and Danny’s worst Christmas (and Spider-Woman comes along for the ride).
Luke Cage and Danny Rand are on the hunt for the most popular Christmas toy of the year- Schnookies. Unfortunately, it’s Christmas Eve, and Schnookies are just a scheme from the demon Krampus to try to control the souls of Earth. Thankfully, Luke, Danny, Jessica Drew are all on the case, and ready to kick some demon ass.
Walker gets it in this annual. Christmas is a whole lot of big and crazy. In the real world, it’s about fighting crowds, getting the popular toy, feeling inadequate as a parent. But on the flip side, the mythology is kinda insane, because Christmas is increasingly becoming about all the different traditions and myths and legends surrounding it. He takes all of that, mashes it all up together, and turns it into a coherent whole. Even better, it’s got strong character work, with especially poignant emotional arcs for Luke- who just wants to make Danielle happy- and Jessica- who is struggling with her first Christmas as a mom.
What Walker and Hepburn pull off together makes it even better. I’m kind of impressed that the duo only did this issue together, as they have a great creative lockstep. Any comic featuring Iron Fist needs to be a fight book, and Walker sets up a lot of gleeful violence in the script which Hepburn executes with more than one fight sequence, sometimes multipage. It’s all a lot of fun, and captures both the spirit of the characters and the season. Milla especially helps that last point, coloring the lights and dressing around the bright superhero trappings.
This era at Marvel- from about 2012 to 2017- is one of the best creative times the company has ever seen. This annual is perfect example of how and why I’ll love a lot of the stories from this stretch. And even better, it captures the Christmas spirit perfectly.